NORAD’s Tracking Santa Started By Accident in 1955

by Warner Todd Huston | December 24, 2011 3:51 pm

Alright, kids, NORAD is once again tracking Santa’s progress across the world this Christmas season. If you kiddies want to find out where Santa is right this very minute, have mom and dad help you dial 1-877-446-6723 or visit NORAD’s Santa tracking website: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/[1].

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa since 1955, and it all started by accident.

It is sort of a cute story, really, but what started NORAD’s Santa tracking effort[2] was a 1955 Sears department store advertisement from Colorado Springs — where NORAD is based — that informed kids that they could call Santa on the phone. Unfortunately for the Sears promotion, the newspaper printed the wrong phone number and by sheer accident that number happened to take callers to the military installation’s switch board.

×

101 Things All Young Adults Should Know

[3]

by Sir John Hawkins

John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.

Buy Now[4]

When dozens of calls from little kids started coming into what was then called the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center, the officer in command, Colonel Harry Shoup, told his operators to go ahead and tell kids what they wanted to hear. He also ordered to tell kids that they were tracking Santa across the world with their radar installation.

Colonel Shoup passed away in 2009 and upon his passing NORAD created a little video of the good Colonel reciting that first Santa phone call.

Today, NORAD enlists the aid of volunteers to staff the phones and operate the website (http://www.noradsanta.org/en/[1]) to handle the thousands of requests from the kids.